Salt Creek & Striped Peak Legacy Forests

​Two planned DNR timber sales – “Tiger Stripes Sorts” and “Bird’s Eye View” – would log approximately 300 acres of rare coastal forest, adjacent to the region’s most popular coastal park.  

Salt Creek Recreation Area sees approximately 20,000 visitors per year. It is loved by locals and frequented by visitors from Seattle and around the State, as well as international travelers. People hike from Salt Creek into the Striped Peak area. The “Bird’s Eye View” sale would cut right through the middle of the most popular Striped Peak trail as seen in the image below, clear-cutting almost half of the Strait Slope Trail. The “Tiger Stripes Sorts” sale would decimate the hillsides near Freshwater Bay and also part of the Strait Slope Trail.  

Hundreds filled out a recent Clallam County parks planning survey expressing a desire to see these legacy forests conserved. Protection of this area would create an intact coastal ecosystem, with many trees over 150 years old living among rare plants and lichens, and supporting nesting sites for bald eagles and endangered shorebirds.  

The Tiger Stripes Sorts timber sale would log rare coastal legacy forest and is planned for auction in March, 2026. It’s not too late to convince the WA Board of Natural Resources to not approve the sale or for the Commission of Public Lands to cancel the sale.

Tiger Stripes Sorts would log approximately 123 acres and add 2,850 feet of new forest roads. Unit 1 has an origin date of 1924 and consists of a diverse mixture of trees, including Douglas-Fir, Western Redcedar, Grand Fir and Bigleaf Maple. Units 2 and 3 date from 1896 and are primarily Douglas-Fir and Western Redcedar.

After the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition identified rare plants and ecosystems in the Tiger Stripes Sorts timber sale, the Washington Natural Heritage Program surveyed the area and found the following:

One state endangered ecosystem (G1/S1), two state threatened ecosystems (G2G3/S2 and G2/S2) and one state sensitive plant (G4/S2) were identified and assessed: stands of Thuja plicata – Pseudotsuga menziesii – Abies grandis / Mahonia nervosa / Polystichum munitum Forest (G1/S1) and Pseudotsuga menziesii / Holodiscus discolor – Rosa gymnocarpa / Festuca occidentalis Forest (G2G3/S2) were found to have sufficient ecological integrity to represent new EOs. Stands of Pseudotsuga menziesii – Tsuga heterophylla / Gaultheria shallon – Holodiscus discolor Forest (G2/S2) did not have sufficient ecological integrity and were not extensive enough to clear the threshold necessary for an EO. State sensitive Whipple-vine (Whipplea modesta, G4/S2) was also observed, often within these threatened ecosystems.

WA DNR is updating the timber sale to remove some of these rare ecosystems from being logged, but the clear-cut logging around them will still threaten their integrity.

• WA Natural Heritage Program Survey – Tiger Stripes (1 MB pdf)

The Birds Eye View timber sale will clear-cut approximately 181 acres of rare coastal lowland forest on a north-facing slope, just above the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Unit 1 alone will clear-cut nearly a mile of the 2.3 mile Strait Slope Trail on both sides, the most popular part of the Striped Peak Loop Trail. The trail will likely be turned into a gravel road for hauling lumber, no longer a scenic hike above the Strait.

The Birds Eye View timber sale includes large, mature Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, Western Hemlock, and Big Leaf Maple, with some tree trunks up to six feet across!

Birds Eye View is a naturally regenerated forest with creeks, a complex understory, large snags, large wood on the forest floor and a mixed age canopy. It also includes an understory plant with a ‘Sensitive’ conservation status in WA state – Whipple-vine (Whipplea modesta, G4/S2).